Joy Schools are well-established (over 100,000 parents have been teaching) and truly unique preschools. The central belief of Joy School is simply that children, while in their most impressionable years, should be taught life's most important thing, various capacities for joy. A related belief is that children suffer not from being started in academic learning too late, but in starting too soon, before they have a basis of social and emotional self-esteem.

Do-it-yourself Joy Schools involve from 3 to 6 mothers who rotate as teacher, holding Joy School in their homes twice a week using the detailed lesson plans from this site which include all the music, stories, games, and activities to learn and teach one kind of Joy each month.

The Joy School curriculum is built around joy -- with the philosophy that happy children become strong students and well adjusted adults. For three and four year olds, "J.Q." (Joy Quotient) is more important than I.Q. (Time after time we are told by kindergarten and first grade teachers that Joy School graduates do better in school than kids coming out of pushy, early-academics preschools.)